What you’ve been told about the things you buy

Some consumer myths start as marketing. A phrase like clinically tested or up to 50 percent off is technically defensible and practically meaningless, and after a few years of repetition people treat it as a fact about the product. Others start as advice that was true once: a rule about warranties, cards or returns that changed and never got updated in the retelling.

This desk checks claims about what you buy, what you’re owed and what the fine print allows. We read the label, the regulation and the terms of service, and we look at what independent testing actually found. Legal misconceptions that affect everyday life live here too, from what a receipt check can require to what the law says after an arrest, with a clear line between general information and advice about one person’s situation.

If a claim saves you money only when you stop reading halfway through, it belongs on this desk.